


Oh, the Weather Outside

by opti



Category: Parks and Recreation
Genre: Alternate Universe, Cabin Fic, F/M, Fluff, Interns & Internships, Mild Sexual Content, Past Relationship(s), Snowed In, Strangers to Lovers, Tropes, Workplace Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-05
Updated: 2019-01-05
Packaged: 2019-10-03 20:39:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17291027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/opti/pseuds/opti
Summary: Motivated for once to lose herself in work, April Ludgate is tasked with convincing a potential donor to follow through on a massive donation to the Sweetums Charity. Her boss suggests she take an assistant, the enthusiastic if bumbling Andy Dwyer along with her in order to help with any of the secretarial work.When they arrive at their unusual lodgings, the weather proves to be a deterrent to their actual work but a catalyst for something wholly inappropriate between colleagues.





	Oh, the Weather Outside

**Author's Note:**

> This is a very late Christmas gift to the extraordinarily sweet [aubrey-softandsmall-plaza on tumblr!](https://aubrey-softandsmall-plaza.tumblr.com/)
> 
> You have been so patient with me waiting for this fic. I can only hope this lives up to your expectations. I had a ton fun building this little AU!

From the start, April knew this was a terrible idea. Here she was, her very lame boss telling her to go do something and it was compounding an already infuriating day. Why did Ben have to be this way? Why did he expect her to  _work_ and do  _things_ like perform and she could only sigh loudly enough to remind herself she wanted this.

But it really started earlier that day, specifically in the morning.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Every day, she would get up and groan and pus her blaring phone off of the bedside table and lurch towards a shower she knew she needed. The hot water broke the spell of sleep and it only took a minor amount of willpower to force herself to step out and prepare for the rest of the day. Brush her teeth, get dressed, make some coffee. It was a steady, constant schedule.

But today? Today her boyfriend, Eduardo, decided he needed to spend  _another_ forty-five minutes in the shower preparing for one of his long list of mysterious photo shoots for a modeling agency. April always thought it was hilarious that she had shacked up with an underwear model, but when she found out it was specifically long johns and she laughed at the set he showed her? That was extra special. He didn't seem to find it so funny. They hadn't talked about it since then and April just put up with it. Until today, for the sixth time that week, he spent an inordinate amount of time in that fucking shower.

"Ed, are you seriously still in there?" she pounded her head against the door as she spoke.

"What?" he shouted over the music blasting from tinny waterproof speakers she instantly regretted buying for him.

"I said--!" April groaned and opened the door. He wasn't even in the shower, styling his hair into the same over-gelled mess that he did every single day. At first the effort seemed sexy, now it was so time consuming and needless to her. "I need to get ready for work, can you please get out?"

"And I'm not?" he bit back, his English tinted with a rather heavy accent. Sometimes, they argued in Spanish. These days, with his insistence on taking ESL classes and improving, he liked to showcase that knowledge by getting under her skin. " _Mi alma_ , just because--"

"Please stop calling me that," April shoved her way into the bathroom and started running the shower. As time went on, that name seemed less and less romantic. "I asked you yesterday and--"

"Now I can't even call you that?" Eduardo shook his head and finished styling his hair. "You know, maybe if you took my job more seriously... you would  _get_ me."

"I'm trying to take a shower," she closed the door in his face without acknowledging any of that.

In truth, April had realized some time ago that she didn't feel anything for him. The dates at first were sweet but before long he just seemed obsessed with his own image and wanted to talk about  _his_ job. Everything was somehow always coming back to him as the central topic, a void of personality at the center of meaningless conversation.

It didn't help that the sex felt pretty much the same as the conversation. Cold, distant, all about him.

The hot water of the shower was the first part of her day meant to dissolve any annoyance of the prior night and all it did was incite a need to tell this to Eduardo. She didn't  _hate_ him, really, but the way he fell over himself to call her pet names all without even bothering to make an effort to say three simple words? April felt that when she scrubbed shampoo into her hair with a bit more force than necessary. 

He couldn't even say he loved her, despite her many attempts when she did feel something to let him know he mattered, and now he wanted her to appreciate his  _work_?

All of it was like a reminder, a force guiding her to what she knew she had to do. When she stepped out of the shower and acquitted herself to finally going through with cutting out one of the greatest stress factors in her life he was no longer there. All that remained of him in their apartment was an alert from her phone, a text with a rose and heart emoji from him. Instead of responding, April removed the hearts she put before and after his name in her contacts. It felt like a good first step and, with that, she went about her day with a new focus in mind.

All her life, April had been adamant about ignoring work. Work was nothing, it was vapid and meant to sustain life by necessity in the modern age and not for any personal gain.

 

 

* * *

 

 

And that's why when her boss suggested it, she leapt at the opportunity.

"So, as we all know a mister--" Ben Wyatt, the financial director at the New York branch of the Sweetums Charity and her boss, stared at the pile of papers in front of him. April and a few other of the solicitors at the nonprofit sat in their meetings room, the five of of them sat at a too long table awkward distances from one another. "Swanson has expressed interest in donating, provided that we can...  _offer anything worth a damn,_  according to him. Now, this is gonna be a tough one. I've talked to the guy for about ten minutes over the phone and he seemed pretty severe."

Sitting at the opposite end of the table felt like a power move that April had done her first day as a joke. A harsh stare quieted anyone that said anything about it and Ben reprimanded her the first time with tedious paperwork that she avoided for a week longer than what was proper. Why she hadn't been fired, April didn't know. So, she sat at that same spot by the door and lounged in her chair.

"How so?" April asked, trying to keep her mind off of the impending doom of her relationship. Her phone buzzed again at her desk, far away from where she could feel or hear it, with Eduardo annoyed she didn't respond to his text begging forgiveness in the form of that shitty flower emote.

"Uh..." Ben trailed off, his face plastered with the shock of April actually piping up. Between the four of the solicitors there, her contributions were at best regarded as the bare minimum. "Well, thanks for asking April. He didn't seem interested in the spiel about what we do for the rest of the country for one."

"Did he want a branch at... Pawnee, Indiana?" Ted, the classic go-getter of the group, said with a dismissive laugh. April glanced sideways and felt her eyes roll of their own accord at his smarmy laughter. Ben gave him a cold, stern look that said everything he hadn't about the interruption that Ted again provided. Again and again, every single time they had a meeting. "That's what those places always want."

"Not necessarily," Ben said. "It seemed he needed convincing about what his donation could mean. Now, I've tried showing him our nonprofit reports but he didn't seem very interested in exactly where the money went as long as... we weren't  _lining the pockets of more filthy politicians_. Again, his words."

April was starting to like this guy, Swanson.

"So--"

At that word, the door to the room burst open. Ben sighed and April tried not to laugh at his annoyance, eventually turning to see who had barged into the room. A tall guy in a too-small short-sleeved shirt and too-long tie with wild, dirty blond hair and a scraggly stubble of a beard was what greeted her. In one hand, he held a bag from a local coffee shop they all ordered from and in his other a cup carrier with four coffees. The fifth was on the floor now, spilled onto the carpet. His face held such fear April worried he thought it was a war crime instead of a mistake.

"Oh my God, I'm sorry Mr. Wyatt. That one wasn't for you though, it had someone else's name on it though. I couldn't read it because it was all in a weird handwriting that looked like spiders," the newcomer got out in a rush of breath. He set the bag bag and cup carrier down in front of April before reaching down to pick up the plastic cup and looked at it again. "Seriously, who wrote these?"

"I did," April answered. She could already tell whose coffee was all over the floor from seeing all her coworkers' names on the cups that survived. She sighed. "That one was mine."

"Oh, are you...?" he stared at the cup and squinted. The way he scrunched up his nose made her chuckle, like he actually couldn't read her rather plain writing. He stared at her when he spoke. "Abe?"

"Yes," April nodded.

"No, this is April," Ben said and then went about introducing each of the solicitors. "Everyone, this is our new intern Andy. He'll be helping with some stuff like... getting coffee and maybe help pick up some of the slack on the paperwork. Thanks Andy, I can call someone in to clean that up. Don't worry about it."

"Are you sure? I know where the bleach is I can--"

"Let's not do that," Ben said and cleared his throat. He waved off this tall Andy who seemed so enthusiastic to help clean up his mess. "Thanks again, Andy."

"Yeah, thanks Andy," April lingered on his name, staring at him and hoping her usually cold and deathly glare would scare him away.

Instead, he  _laughed_. It caught her so off guard that April's eyes widened and she didn't know what to say. Thankfully, he interrupted her confusion to ask, "So, do you want me to get you another one? It'll take no time at all, I swear."

"Uh, yeah... sure," April muttered. For the first time that day, someone had slipped past her guard in a way that nobody ever had. He had seen her usual terrifying presence, past that evil look, and laughed at it like it was a joke. Who the hell was this guy? "You know how I take it?"

"Black with one sugar," this Andy recited with a toothy smile that had this strange aura about it. He had this whole  _thing_ about him that was strange and interesting to her. When April nodded her approval he pumped his fist in the air and ran out of the room in an instant, yelling without looking, "I'm on it!"

April couldn't really explain it to herself and was thankful for the inevitable question.

"So, I'm going to need someone to head over to--"

"I'll do it," April blurted out before anyone else could say a word. Maybe it was the bizarre high from someone just laughing at her attempted fear aura or the need to get away from Eduardo, she didn't know.

Ben only smiled at her. Turns out when the expectations are so low for you, it's easy to sneak your way into a job you probably don't deserve if you show some initiative.

 

 

* * *

 

 

But then came the tricky part -- she needed to take an assistant.

"Look, I think you'll be... not in over your head, but--"

"In over my head?" she had interrupted Ben, trying to scowl away his willpower. Unfortunately, it seemed her initiative had turned him into some kind-of superhuman boss that didn't wither under her glares anymore.  _Bummer_. "I don't see why I should need anyone to help me get coffee or type up documents or whatever. We have templates for a reason."

"April," Ben gave her a stern a look.

"Ben," she bit back.

"This isn't up for discussion. Take an intern or something," he waved it off and then that smug, half-smile grew on his face. "You know what? Why don't you take Andy with you? He's genuinely trying to be helpful and... well, we gotta stop paying for cleaning services around here."

"Ugh, him?" she scoffed and looked over her shoulder to see if he was there. That grin and helpfulness all over his face.

"C'mon, he's been asking for more work around the office. He's not even a paid intern, so--"

"He doesn't get paid?" April asked. She'd had her own unpaid internship, but she was also much younger than this guy and straight out of college and, sadly, that was the norm. "Why?"

"He never brought it up and, well, I assumed..." Ben looked down and clearly he had a bit of an internal fight over that just as April gave him a look of complete disappointment. Her boss was lame, not a vulture. "Look, if he does well on this you won't have to see him again. We can set him up with data entry somewhere. Maybe somewhere else. I don't know, just take him so that he stops spilling your coffee on our carpets. Thanks."

April knew that word, that last  _thanks_ that meant the conversation was over regardless of what she said. So she stomped off to her office, hoping to escape for a few hours to a nap or some well-earned solitaire. Maybe even a few Eduardo texts to ignore and laugh at so that she could completely reaffirm her growing desire to ditch him. Instead of that, though, she was greeted by someone rushing to her office door and knocking with fast taps despite the darkness inside.

"Oh, hey... April!" Andy said, his hair somehow even crazier than before. His sleeve was torn and his face matted with dirt, a cup of coffee in his hand that looked pristine despite his condition. "Sorry I'm late. I got hit by a taxi and then a guy tried to mug me but I had to throw some of your coffee in his face. I swear there's at least half in here--"

Unable to process half of what he was saying and the complete romp he had been on while April argued with Ben about taking him with her, April stood there mouth partially agape in stupid wonder. He presented the cup to her and when she took it there was clearly about half of it missing.

"You... got  _mugged_?" April had to quiet herself because that was the coolest thing an intern had ever done in the history of interns. She always texted and fucked around with her nails before typing nonsense in an attempt to look busy. "Dude, are you okay? Do you need me to call the police or something?"

"Oh, no. Like I said, I managed to get him with really hot coffee and didn't get stabbed, so that's cool," he said and wheezed out a hard, heavy breath. "That taxi was going pretty slow too."

"I could've lived without the coffee, holy crap," she laughed. "But... uh, thanks, I guess."

"No problem!" he shouted and ran past her before April could thank him again for almost dying for a few bucks. 

She watched him trot off towards his meager desk with no cubicle walls for safety, only to be stopped by Ben. They fell into conversation and April watched Andy's face split into something like a puppy dog being told it was being adopted and understanding. Something about it was... endearing to say the least. April found herself letting a small smile creep onto her face and quickly hid it when they both turned to look towards her office. Anxiety lit her like a surge of lightning and April took a sip of extremely hot coffee, yelping to herself and hoping neither noticed.

Andy was laughing. He noticed. For some reason, that was extra embarrassing.

 

 

* * *

 

 

In the airport terminal, the very next day, April was trying to maintain her control of the situation.

She had stayed at Natalie's place for the night, ignoring Eduardo's calls except to text him back with a solid reply:  _Leave me alone._

Honestly, it was refreshing. No longer worrying about how to prop up his ego and deal with her own problems herself without any of his support was getting tiring in a way that grew into irritation that spread throughout that relationship. Maybe he would get it when she sent that. Who knew what he would respond with since she hadn't gotten a reply for hours. Either way, it felt good. Keeping control of that felt like a blanket of warmth all over and Natalie hadn't mentioned anything about it, even better.

But now? Now she was about to get on a plane with Andy.

"Dwyer, it's Andy Dwyer," he told her. His enthusiasm about the  _road trip_ as he called it turned out to be almost infectious. "I can't believe you picked  _me_ to go with you! This is so exciting. Do we know anything about this guy that wants to buy our company or whatever? Is he a doctor? Maybe he's a doctor, did we ask that--?"

"Okay, first rule of this is that you need to let me do the talking," April reprimanded him and Andy didn't lose that smile but he did shut up. "And no, he's not a doctor. He's not buying the company either, as cool as that would be. He's just gonna donate a LOT of money."

"Oh, yeah? Like, a million dollars? A  _billion dollars_?" Andy threw his hands on both of his cheeks in complete, genuine surprise. "Is he  _that_ rich? Could he loan me a couple thousand bucks? Rent is really hard to make when you don't pay and I think my friend, Burly, is getting kinda tired of it."

April gaped at him. "I... don't know how much," April looked down at the briefcase full of the case file and paperwork that Mr. Swanson would have to sign and the whole mess of it annoyed her to even think about. She hadn't bothered to ask about the donation amount. It would matter when it mattered and there was no reason to bother herself with those details. "A lot. Maybe you should ask him if he could loan to you."

"Oh, that's an amazing idea!" Andy shouted in the terminal. Luckily, nobody was there to say anything yet. The only reason they were there that early was Andy's insistence they be an hour and a half early just in case. "You have amazing ideas! No wonder you're so high up."

"I'm just a solicitor," April said with a chuckle, ignoring the heat in her face about how nice it felt to be complimented by someone. None of it felt like sucking up bullshit too, something that April had learned when some of those trust fund kiddies had done their run as interns at Sweetums. "It's not  _that_ big a deal."

"And you're super young, that's so cool. You're could be president some day, too!"

"Shut up," April looked down because while that sounded like a sickening amount of daily stress, her face burned. "That sounds lame, anyways. And I'm not  _that_ young..."

"If you, uh, don't mind me asking..." Andy fiddled with his fingers, getting quieter with every word like it was just as embarrassing for him to ask this. She already knew what was coming and for some strange reason, felt no issue answering. "How old are you? I'm thirty-two, which is really weird for me to be working for free but I get to work at this super cool place and it's all for charity? That's so awesome."

April watched him ramble. His sheer joy was getting to her. She knew to push back and get whatever was working its way into her out of the way, he was an intern and she had a pretty intense power over him and could lie any time to Ben about how terrible a worker he was. In truth, the only thing she could convince him to let her carry was her briefcase. He had both luggage bags taken to get checked and even brought her a breakfast sandwich on the way back, his already eaten according to him. She could lie. She should. It would probably be way funnier to watch him put all this work in, all this excitement about something as silly as an internship he mysteriously acquired, only to be thrown out for harassment.

And yet.

"Twenty-five," she answered truthfully.

"Whoa, isn't that super young?" Andy asked, his eyes wide. "All the other people working the same job as you are, like, one hundred."

"Yeah, but not the hot one hundred. They're all stuffy and lame," she sighed and watched his grin spread. "Sorry, that was inappropriate."

"No, it's pretty funny. Old people are hot?"

"Only when they have giant beards and eyebrows that grow into their sideburns," she said with a shrug and a well-fought smile. She was mostly joking, but Andy burst into this delightful, warm laughter that filled the cavernous terminal in a way that reverberated back to them and burned her back up all over again. "And then there's Ted... ugh, he's such a dick."

"You're way better at this than he is," Andy said through his dying laughter. His voice grew serious as he calmed down.

"You don't even know me," she reminded him and shook her head.

"But you seem way cooler than him."

A buzz of her phone at the alarm she had set to get there a few minutes before check-in reminded April that they needed to go through security. She told Andy as much and they made their way to their seats after the arduous process of TSA checks. Thanks to the relatively small flight to the neighboring town of Eagleton, sitting by themselves was an easy process.

After a thoroughly tedious safety reminder complete with all sorts of tutorials about floating around, dying on an ocean, April could settle in and hopefully nap. That was the only way sans-medication to relax on these flights, even if it was only a few hours. There were supposed to be no delays or stops of any sort, and thank God that was true so far. The only person she had to contend with was Andy, who saw her put earphones in and kept to himself. And, frankly? She could hug him for it. The thought was intrusive, but perhaps not entirely unwanted, and she tried to ignore its source.

So she settled back, closed her eyes, and tried to fall asleep to the hum of white noise in her ears.

With the thought of her relationship with Eduardo starting to seem so far in the past already, a fantastically hassle-free airport experience, and a helpful assistant, sleep came easily. Even in those stupid seats with barely enough leg room even for her, let alone Andy's long legs, she drifted off.

When she woke up, it was with a start. Her head was resting on something warm, heavy, and extremely comfortable. Her face was smashed against Andy's shoulder and he was asleep, too. When she jolted away from him, oddly annoyed with the lack of extreme warmth he provided and the softness of his body, he remained asleep.

Her heart raced fast almost like she woke up out of breath and her fingers jittered with anxious energy. April stared straight ahead, trying not to look back at him. She couldn't help herself. Turning, she watched his heavy breaths turn into light snores and smacked herself on the forehead. How long had she been asleep like that? Why didn't he wake her up? Maybe that was it! He had to be a creep. Why else would he ask how old she was? He seemed so... perfect a guy, and that  _had_ to be his flaw.

Satisfied with her analysis of an otherwise normal guy who had almost died to get her coffee that he had spilled earlier, April crossed her arms and sighed in satisfaction. At least then she could remain convinced she wasn't starting to feel something a bit unsuitable for a coworker. Left with those bumbling, idiotic and fighting thoughts, April spent the remainder of the flight feeling every bit of turbulence and the reminder that they were heading into a storm without really thinking about it. Something about a heavy snow that would start as soon as they landed at Eagleton, but April didn't care.

Because those thoughts, the ones that were excited to be free of Eduardo, were winning.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Snow already began its slow descent, light but windy with a warning of more to follow, the moment they were out in Eagleton. Their luggage miraculously  _didn't_ get lost for once and, again, April didn't understand. Maybe Andy was a good luck charm and that was part of the reason he stumbled into this job without any experience beforehand in this sort of thing.

"You've never worked at a nonprofit before?" April asked on the walk to the hotel they'd be staying in, something about cheapo suites along the border to the town where this mysterious benefactor resided. "Or a charity? Done, like, a political campaign or something? I know that's what my boss is really shooting for."

"Hm? Oh, me? Nah. I thought nonprofits were made up. After all, how is a business supposed to function without a means of income outside of donations to themselves?" Andy asked, scratching his chin at an intersection red light. April squinted at him, baffled yet again by Andy Dwyer. "I mean, what do you guys even do?"

"Well, we cover our own expenses with donations that come throughout the year and then take stuff like what Swanson's promising and do stuff like... pay for underprivileged kids' music lessons or something," April said with a shrug, wheeling her luggage across the pavement along the last block to the hotel. "Did you even ask what we did before getting this job?"

"I heard charity and thought that sounded cool, so figured why not?" Andy pointed to a small, dilapidated building. "Oh, I think that's our place. Man, it's snowing pretty hard already. Let's go."

"Sure," April said, unsure of herself because this Andy.

She hadn't noticed the first day she saw him, or maybe did and ignored it because she was technically still dating Eduardo, but he was handsome. Not a chiseled pile of muscle or anything from a dimestore romance novel, he was soft in the belly and sort-of fat, but he could lift the hundred pounds or so of luggage out of the way to get theirs at checkout. His beard  _was_ patchwork, but there was enough definition in places and nothing wispy or childish about it. Just thin and it looked fun to scrape around in with her nails. April did  _not_ take any note of the way his thighs bulged with more muscle than fat or his butt, though.

That was too far.

She might be lying to herself about that last part.

As they checked into the hotel, April's phone rang with the number she knew was this Swanson's.

"Hello, April Ludgate. Sweetums, New York," she answered in a voice as robotic as the script sounded. Maybe if she was answering at her office she'd respond with a Domino's location but not now.

"This is Ron Swanson," a deep, gruff voice answered her. From the sound of wind whipping through his already crackling voice, April could tell he was outside somewhere in the building winds. "I don't suppose you are on your way to complete our transaction?"

"Excuse me? It's snowing like crazy outside," April said without any laughter. Andy looked back at her, questions in his eyes he didn't ask. She shook her head at him. "I don't even know  _where_ I'm supposed to be going--"

"I have several... excuse me,  _a_ cabin outside of the Pawnee city limits within which I would like to conduct this business," Mr. Swanson said, coughing halfway through as if he hadn't already told her there was more than one cabin. If she didn't know better, this was a setup for a weird serial killer situation that for once April didn't really want to deal with. "I am outside and I assume nobody is listening in on this call?"

"Uh... yeah, I guess. Nobody's bugged my phone," April chuckled, watching Andy follow suit.

"Good, then I'll give you the directions to the location. Do not write these down. Can you do that?"

"I waited at the Times Square Grill," April felt annoyance burning up already. Could this guy get to the point? "I can handle some directions."

"Fantastic, then..."

While April memorized the various turns and roads they'd have to take, she wrote down a message to Andy. He needed to find them a rental car, and now. As he read it he was already asking for a rental place and April sighed relief. As the conversation ended, April looked out into the growing blizzard outside. It was only a matter of time before that turned into a full on storm and she knew better. Still, the same desire to invite herself to this work trip filled her with the unwanted motivation to get this over with and spend the remaining day of their work trip fucking off on the company dime. Or, that's what April told herself she'd do. She always did and she could never justify spending any money set aside for these trips, despite never really touching the charitable funds, on frivolous crap.

Before long, they were strapped into the seatbelts of an ancient Towncar with luggage left in their hotel rooms and a burgeoning snow storm on the horizon. The trip would take another hour and, along the way, April couldn't even listen to the radio because of the weather and she needed to pay attention. Despite that, Andy spoke a storm as heavy as the snow beating the car as they drove.

"I'm sorry if I'm making you uncomfortable," he finally said through the haze of nonsense she had largely ignored. It was mostly the same things about being so excited to be here. "It's just that, y'know, I wanted to... uh, get to know you."

"Ew," April said loudly enough for him to hear.

"Not like that!" he said and she could see his face turn red out of the corner of her periphery. Did he actually  _mean_ like that? April ignored the thought, especially how tantalizing it was. "I just didn't want this to be weird but now I made it weird. Sorry."

"It's fine, just say it less... creepily. Or creepy in a cool way," April told him, trying to focus on where the  _right at the old upturned elm_ would be.

"Oh, like a vampire or something?"

"Yes, exactly," April said with another little laugh. This was the most she had even  _smiled_ let alone laughed in the past five months. There was, strangely enough, another person in her life in those five months that contributed to that lack of fun in a big, annoying way. "Be like a vampire when you say you're interested in me."

April regretted the words when they formed in her head, felt them in their awkward tenor when they hit her lips, and feared what he might take from them when they turned into an actual vocalization. She knew it was a mistake. She just told him not to be creepy and yet she was creeping on him without even thinking about it. Or, at least, without restraining herself.

And  _that_ thought made her cheeks actually turn red hot again.

Neither of them said a word for the rest of the trip even as the storm became a blinding blizzard as they parked in the drive of their destination.

The door to the cabin was locked but after remembering her directions, April found the key hidden under the thirteenth rock from the seventh step southbound from the back door steps. It opened the door with a loud creak of the wood and inside, the air was dead with dust and cold. Her teeth chattered and Andy moved for her and stopped abruptly when she looked over her shoulder. He chuckled and she hoped her beanie would sink along her face and hide her completely from the world for the rest of time.

She was seriously crushing on this intern.

First thing, April walked towards the fireplace and poked around for wood. It didn't take long for Andy to arrive with a pile of wood in his arms.

"Where did you find that?" she asked him, watching the pile fall into the fireplace as he wiped his hands of wood splinters. 

"Oh, there was a little cubbyhole on the porch with a little roof and everything," he said with a huff of breath. "There was a ton of firewood there so, uh, I figured this guy wouldn't be mad if he came and there was a fire. That way it wouldn't be so  _freezing_ here."

"Oh, uh... sure," April remarked and pulled her phone out to call Swanson. "God, when will he get here? The blizzard is getting awful."

As April called him, she looked around the room they were in with newfound interest. It was a single floor of cabin space as expected, complete with all the problems of a place unkempt and ignored for months. There were no kitschy furniture pieces, no gaudy couches with absurd patterns or obviously fake taxidermy to be seen. There were a few wooden chairs and a large, skin of  _something_ that looked thick enough to have belonged to a bear on the floor. April didn't focus on that at all. She noticed a tall, wooden case with several different locks on it. The fireplace behind her started to roar into life and the heat on her back felt amazing just as their weird donor answered.

"Swanson? Where are you?" she asked all at once.

"Still outside, I believe I was turned around in this hellsnow," he spoke through a torrent of wind.

"Oh my God, are you okay?" April didn't know if she wanted him to die before they got their money. That might be a bit  _too_ morbid, even for her. "Are you gonna freeze to death?"

"No, I've survived worse," he said with a laugh and then a deep shivering noise. "I may lose a toe or two."

"That's amazing. Are you going to saw them off?"

"I may," Swanson answered. "You two turned around and are still in Eagleton, I assume?"

"Um... well, about that," April laughed. "We drove to the cabin. We're here and we've got a fire going."

There was a long pause where all April could hear was the howling wind outside delayed and repeated through the phone. "Well, at least you are somewhere warm. We? I assume one of you has found the firewood."

"Yeah, that was Andy, he saw it. Is it okay if we, uh, don't die from freezing in here?" she asked, unsure how to word this to someone in a blizzard. In fact, if April's brain wasn't partially frozen and also melting from watching Andy strip out of his heavy coat to a tight, long-sleeved flannel shirt, she'd be dying from the awkward anxiety of it all. "I mean, dying by hypothermia is supposed to be really fun. But, still, I'd rather not."

"And I'd rather not have the police investigating two corpses on my property," Swanson added. April couldn't really laugh. "And I'd have to dig graves. No thank, ma'am."

April bristled at the word but ignored it. "Thanks. We'll, uh, keep some lights on or something for you in case you can't find this place."

She was met with a deep laugh. April focused instead on Andy stretching in front of the fireplace that she was hogging. Moving out of the way, he brought his hands close to the heat and very close to her. He could move them just a few inches and suddenly she'd be in his arms. Big, soft, strong arms.

"... I will have no problems finding the cabin. Expect me first thing in the morning," she woke up from her daydream of something wholly inappropriate between colleagues to the sound of this guy she was supposed to be taking money from.

April hung up when his end blasted with more wind and abruptly ended the call.

She sighed and sat down in one of the wooden rocking chairs carved with intricate floral patterns along the whole piece. It supported the blunt fall of her weight with barely a creak and began throwing itself back and forth. She put her head in her hands and hoped when she opened her eyes, there would be an airplane interior before her and this was all a dream. After squeezing her eyes shut and counting to three, April finished and opened them to see just the dusty insides of a cabin that could be their icy grave.

And, in front her, Andy was sitting with his back to her and warming his hands and feet now de-socked in front of the fire. It blazed just from the handful of logs and April began to voice her concern that they should bring in more when she noticed the pile beside him. He had already done it and was turning to watch her stare at the pile.

"Oh, I got some more for later," Andy said with a grin. He turned in his seat on the bear rug to face her. His flannel with its sleeves rolled up to his elbows revealed arms with thick wrists and hands that looked calloused but not such so that they would feel like concrete. Just hard and stable, very much unlike a model's hands. "I figured since I can't get us coffee I'd do the next best thing."

"Thanks," is all she could get out without breaking into a diatribe as to how he was the best intern on the planet. Well, that was part of it. The other part was fixated on him, physically. "Uh, I guess we're stuck here for a while."

"Yeah, but at least there's a fire," Andy reminded her, pointing back at the crackling ash and splintering wood. She noticed the way his eyes fixed on her, something behind them so warm that it outclassed the fire. "Oh, I think we should probably sleep down here, though."

"What!?" April practically choked on her next breath.

"It's probably super cold upstairs and we could sleep in our coats or something," he remedied and then shot up to his feet. April pulled back, unsure what  _that_ was about. "Wait! There's probably blankets somewhere here. Let me find 'em."

While Andy went about his hunt, April stared into the fire. It didn't say anything back like she hoped, nothing about dying by dawn or evil magic in the woods. Instead it crackled and warmed her face. Standing up, she started to unzip her jacket when Andy entered the room again. He had two heavy quilts in his hand. His face, however, dropped. His eyes were focused.

April paid no mind to him until she stretched out of her coat, the thin fleece clearly showing something because Andy turned his view away and down at the quilts as soon as she saw him. Then she felt the cool air on her stomach and quickly resumed a slumped position. Andy walked over, awkward, and handed her one of the blankets. It was almost frozen solid so she laid it in front of the fire, hoping it would defrost by the time it was necessary. Andy set his beside hers and sat, facing away from her, on the floor again.

If she didn't know better, this  _thing_ was becoming mutual.

Honestly, April didn't mind it. The only time Eduardo ever complimented her body was when he wanted sex or during. There was no,  _You look good today_ or even so much as an awkward staring at exposed skin. Maybe that was her tasting the first signs of the seven-year itch but she didn't care. Andy was clearly watching her stretch out, probably focusing less on the skin and maybe whatever curves he could make out in the firelight. Then again, she  _had_ ogled his butt in tight jeans at the hotel. Maybe it was fair. That's all it would be, some ogling and flirting.

Andy finally spoke up for them, still turned around.

"So... what do we do now?" he asked.

"Now? Uh, stay warm?" she spoke over a particularly loud blur of wind outside and the battery of snow hitting the roof. Something outside fell over or fell off the roof, crashing into a dull thud. "And not get killed by whatever that was."

"You think it was somebody outside?" Andy asked and stood up, hands raising slightly and then dropping to his sides in balled fists.

"Don't be stupid, it was probably just some snow or an icicle," she said with a laugh. She shook her head but didn't mind how quickly he took on that weirdly defensive posture. What a strange, strange dude. "Or maybe a serial killer."

"Oh man, really? It's just my luck that I get serial killed in a cabin," he said with a sad huff of breath. His fists were no longer tightly balled and his shoulders slouched. "I was hoping it would be in space. I'd rather get  _Jason X'_ d than  _Evil Dead_ 'd, y'know?"

"Dude, seriously?  _X_?"

"What? It's the best one!" Andy said with no humor at all in his voice. No ironic detachment or anything. He looked absolutely appalled she would claim such a piece of crap movie was as bad as it is. "Plus, we wouldn't turn into zombies."

"Yeah, but that's like half the fun," April deadpanned.

"Do you think you feel anything when you become a zombie? Is it like being paralyzed and stuck inside your own body with all your thoughts and memories but all you can do is eat other people?" again he asked with scratching of his beard and April had never felt more terrified of zombies in her life. Normally they were ghoulish fun, but the way he worded that made them sound genuinely horrible. "Or maybe we lose all of that but it doesn't matter 'cuz we're dead and some evil ghost is inside of us and using us to take over the world--"

"Stop."

"Oh, sorry. I figured you liked scary movies," Andy said with a pained expression like he had just prepared a meal all day only to find out she hated it. Some kind of pure disappointment in himself. "Y'know, not everyone knows about those."

"I do, but the way you talk about them is actually... scary," April almost whispered the last word. "Usually when I watch something like  _Death Canoe_ it's just funny. Or  _Death Bed_."

"The bed that eats!" Andy shouted and it was so loud that April actually jumped in her seat. "Oh my God, you are so awesome. You know all the coolest movies. I'm not kidding, you're amazing..."

 Andy stopped speaking abruptly and stood there. She looked up through her excitement to see him clamping his mouth shut in a comedic overbite.

There was  _something_ here, definitely. April had chalked it up to a pure physical attraction and a desire for a quick rebound with no attachments, all in good fun. And truly, he was  _hot_. Eduardo was classically handsome, had the clean cut and hard jawline, but Andy? He was in no way rugged or anything but between the way he had gone about preparing the cabin for them without a care, excited to help them and keep her warm, was a different type of attractive.

April knew she shouldn't try anything. He was her subordinate. It was inappropriate. There could never be anything between them because Ben would surely fire her, something she didn't normally care about until she realized it would mean that she would have fewer reasons to be around such an amazing man. He wasn't paid, he earned little in the way of a resume, and he humiliated himself to do the lowliest of chores around an office of hoity-toity office-types with all the charisma of a duffel bag stuffed with roadkill. He did all of this without a complaint and April was recently single and, for some reason, she really could not stop thinking about that last part.

He cleared his throat and April stood up without thinking about it.

"Um, sorry... I gotta..." Andy rubbed his face with both hands and April took note of fingers lacking rings. "This is weird. I don't want this to be weird, especially if we have to sleep together."

April stared at him, hard, waiting for him to fix his sentence. He never did. "Um... sorry, what?" she finally asked.

"I mean it when I say you're really cool and I think... I think you think the same about me and I wanna get it out of the way so that it doesn't make the night weird," he spoke in a rush and finally took a deep breath. April felt compelled to step forward, to be closer to him than she had at any other point other than sleeping on his shoulder on a plane. "Because you are kinda like my boss and I don't want you to get in trouble because that'd be dumb. You've got, like, so many opportunities and I could screw that up and--"

Andy didn't get further than that.

Whatever compelled April to walk forward was clearly infatuated with this guy. Whatever brought her closer to him either without him realizing or, more likely considering the rising pitch in his voice, with the really apparent closeness looming, that part of April wanted to lean on her toes and kiss him. Whatever that had finally given up on Eduardo was enticing her with the possibility of this weirdo, bumbling intern in a way that needed comfort beyond all the incredible, kind words he gave her. That part of April won.

When she stood up higher to reach him, their kiss tasted of something earthy and strangely all Andy. She hadn't known him long, but it fit. The cautious pressure of his lips against hers was met with hands that felt along her waist to hold onto her. She hummed against his mouth, delighted by the pressure along her skin. His hands clawed into her skin. She wrapped her arms over his shoulders, intertwining fingers to lay flat against the back of his neck as she felt him open his mouth for her. She advanced first, testing the boundaries of the taboo they were no longer dancing along.

It didn't take long for Andy to groan, obviously enjoying himself. When they broke apart, his eyes were lidded with something that warmed April's chest and worked its way along her skin. His thumbs walked patient, steady circles from their station at her hips. They were big and warm, just like he felt. Even when she had kissed him she felt how warm he was, not rigid and cold and distant. Here and now and hot.

"That didn't make it too weird, did it?" April whispered, looking up at him.

"I... I was trying not to do that since I saw you at work," he admitted.

"Really?" she asked, pulling him closer. She could feel him respond to the kiss and she smiled, dumbstruck with it. " _Really_?"

"You're so beautiful, but you're like, my boss--"

"Stop saying that!"

"That you're beautiful? Because you are," he repeated and while April was dying inside hearing that, it's not what she meant.

"No, I'm not your boss," she reminded him. "You can keep saying the other thing, though. You're not so bad yourself."

"Oh yeah? Well, you are," he remarked and left a peck of a kiss on her lips. "Not bad, I mean. That sounds bad. You're hot. Er, beautiful. Wait, both!"

"Oh my God, just shut up and kiss me again!"

Andy listened to her and when she felt it, the urge for more was almost blinding. There was something very wrong about this, about sleeping with an intern, but she couldn't help it. It was like some kinda reverse fantasy for her -- she was the  _younger_ higher-up getting with a sexy  _older_ intern. She loved how that sounded when he helped her out of her shirt, staring at her chest and running his hands up her back to feel for the clasp. When she was completely free, Andy's weight guided her down to the floor where he could keep his face between her breasts.

He left a trail, kissing down her chest and stopping for a few moments before finding her belly so interesting. He ran a circle of kisses until he was dangerously close to her.

When he slipped her pants down, his mouth dangerous along her stomach and working down for what had to be her airplane dream coming to completion, Andy stopped just above her waist and looked up. With the firelight behind him, illuminating his still clothed form in all its beauty, Andy asked, "Is this okay?"

April only nodded.

She was warm from his hands, from his kisses, and from the fire. When his mouth worked between her legs, it was definitely  _more_ than okay.

 

 

* * *

 

 

They woke to the sound of a door opening. Andy had shed all of his clothes the night before, April relishing in the way his body felt under her hands, and was already stuffing himself into underwear and a shirt when the sound of someone loudly clearing their throat interrupted her hazy search for her own clothing.

"Have I interrupted something?" it was the voice of Mr. Swanson.

After explaining it away, asking him to please keep quiet -- answered with a surprising disinterest at two people having had sex in his cabin -- April and Andy sat in disheveled clothing in two wooden chairs as Ron Swanson explained to them what he wanted to do with his money. It was specifically to be put aside for conservation purposes. Something that April tried to remember if they even did, or if they could aggregate these kinds of funds and then pass them off to another charity. It was all so confusing.

"The reason I chose your charity is because the Sweetums name has been a part of Pawnee for years," he stopped when they both gave him quizzical looks. "What? Did you think your company came from some coastal politician's mind or something? Goodness, no. That's a Pawnee name. It just so happens nobody actually works at the Charity branch except in New York and Colorado. Do you think I look like the kind of man that asks for help from Coloradans?"

Andy answered quickly, "No sir."

April didn't have the faintest idea why being from Colorado mattered.

"Now, I hope this money will never be handled by any governing body, anywhere, for any purpose," Ron spoke in his collected voice while April tried to remember how to do her job.

"So, let me get this straight... you want us to preserve national landmarks and parks without government oversight?" she asked, incredulous. She wasn't dumb, this wasn't possible.

"No, no. You misunderstand. I want you to use this money for schools, as you do already, but I'd like it to be an... environmental protection initiative, but by the people and for the people," Ron gave himself a bit of a giggle and Andy and April simply glanced at each other with matching smirks that quickly faded with Ron's. "Now, I know that most places up around by you don't really care about nature. That's not fine. I'd like if kids could get to know the outdoors better."

"We could... do something with the Scouts?" Andy offered and April looked over at him with wide eyes. "Oh, sorry. Not my job."

"No, that is a--" April coughed when she looked down to reaffirm how much money was going into this program. She nearly choked. "That's an excellent idea."

"Are you okay?" Ron asked.

"I just want to, uh... this is the amount you wish to donate, correct?" April handed him the file and she drooled over the number of zeroes he was willing to fork over to this insane program idea of his. "I apologize if we wrote down too much, I--"

"No, that looks right," Ron handed it back to her and she simply gawked at it more.

"You know this could qualify you for an honorary award or being named after the program--"

"Stop," Ron lifted his hand. "I've already divulged the location of this cabin, which is far too much for me as it is. I don't need America knowing my name."

"So this is anonymous?"

"Please, and thank you. I'd also like to thank you for leaving the premises which I'm sure you'll be doing now. I've taken the liberty of shoveling the way to the highway and clearing your rental car off," he remarked. "I'd rather you leave soon, instead of potentially making love on my pristine bear carpet once more."

"I, uh... we didn't," Andy started to mutter.

"He means--"

But Ron interrupted her, "Please don't lie to me. It's quite unbecoming of a charity."

This silenced April and Andy, who quietly began loading the car as Ron filled out some of the necessary paperwork. When they were on the road, April glanced in the rearview mirror to see Ron staring at them leaving. They kicked up a little bit of snow that he had missed, something they didn't dare mention because  _when_ did he arrive and  _when_ did he get this done? Andy said nothing about it.

By the time they were at the Eagleton-Pawnee hotel and checking out of the rooms they never stayed in, April was busy getting her luggage sorted out and ready for an airplane ride without a shower. The terminal of the Eagleton airport was beautiful but completely overdone with extravagances no building should have inside. It was utterly ridiculous. There were separate  _rooms_ for passengers waiting to board. Andy broke that concentration and confusion after a few minutes of awkward sitting.

"Hey, so about last night..."

April sighed. The sex was fantastic, she'd never felt so much relief in just one night. He was quite a giving lover and April could still feel the trembling of her skin from the night before. But at first, that's all it had meant to be. She kissed him, that was fun, and then they slept together. That was also pretty fun, but April had no intention on the way in of making this anything more than a fling to forget.

But something else pulled at her.

"Yeah?" she asked, turning to face him. Again she noticed those beautiful eyes and the way he smiled at her, totally knocking her out of rebound mode and into interested mode. "It was really fun, I guess."

"I thought so too," he said, shyly looking down at the floor again. "I, uh--"

"Look, I just broke up with my boyfriend," April started without any idea where the sentence was going to take her, "but that doesn't mean we can't hang out. You already seem way cooler than he ever was."

"Oh yeah?"

 _And a way better lay_ , she thought and did not voice.

"So, why not? As long as we don't do anything at work it's probably okay," she shrugged and went back to making sure her luggage was up to snuff for the fourth time in a row.

"Well, I was thinking we could maybe do something more than... sex?" his voice was so careful, like she'd be angry with him, that April looked over her shoulder at his face in total concentration. "Like, d'you wanna go on a date with me or something? Coffee? I know you like that."

April turned back to her luggage and sighed. Her face was on fire and she considered what the stakes would be if they repeated some of the activities in that cabin here in this airport. Deciding against it, after all she still hadn't taken a shower, April sat up and put her hands on her thighs. She patted them a few times and looked at him, smiling.  

Now that she had taken the job, gotten away from her ex, and found someone who just seemed so enamored in her? She knew this was perhaps the best things that could have happened to her.

"Coffee sounds good," she answered before leaning over the stained oak armrest between them and pulling him by the collar of his jacket down to kiss her on the lips.


End file.
